The medical shelter will reportedly open in the college gymnasium, 2600 Woodbridge Ave. in Edison.Google maps

EDISON – Middlesex County officials plan to open a shelter equipped to help about 250 people with special medical needs displaced by Hurricane Sandy from Middlesex, Monmouth and Union counties.

The shelter will reportedly be located in the gymnasium at Middlesex County College, 2600 Woodbridge Ave. in Edison.

Middlesex County Freeholder Director Christopher D. Rafano announced Saturday that the larger, more advanced regional shelter will alleviate overloads at the smaller local shelters and area hospitals in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. He said the shelter will open by "the end of the weekend."

“In working with Middlesex County College President Joann La Perla-Morales and our County Emergency Management personnel, we have identified an optimal location for a shelter,” Rafano said. “The location already has kitchen, restroom and locker facilities, and plenty of open space and smaller areas to provide effective patient care.”

Rafano said the shelter will be up and fully operational by the end of the weekend and will be managed by medical professionals deployed by the federal government, with support from personnel from the Middlesex County Office of Health Services. All costs associated with staffing and running the shelter will be paid for by the federal government.

The first patients to be brought to the shelter will be those with medical needs currently in local shelters and then those from area hospitals, which are experiencing patient overloads in their emergency rooms.

Once the shelter occupants and hospital patients are accommodated, remaining beds will be offered to people in the community in need of medical assistance.

The shelter will be open for two weeks, but may remain open longer if the need exists.